Sensor arrays are typically used in a many applications, including medical analysis, security; production line monitoring, air analysis and satellite imaging. Also, sensor arrays in the form of image sensor arrays are often found in digital cameras and computer scanners. Sensor arrays have been commonly implemented using Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) technology. The benefits of using ASICs are well known and include Low-cost for small quantities,simplified product assembly and design security However, there are several disadvantages for ASICs such as slow fabrication and design time and high tooling costs.
Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have become a widely used for both cost and time efficient electronic circuit development. A FGPA has a large number of digital configurable logical blocks (CLBs) allowing many logical functions to be realized. Data transfer rates between the FPGAs and external electronic memory can be as high as 100 Mbits/s and configuration times of tens of milliseconds are typically required for medium size FPGAs. This large reprogramming overhead compared with system clock periods of a few nanoseconds clearly limits the practical exploitation of a FPGA's dynamic capability.
Further to the above, it is known to couple a sensor array package to a FGPA package to provide a sensor array system. However, design and verification costs for this type of system may be unreasonably high and this may lead to undesirable delays affecting the time-to-market of a product. Also, having separate packages increases circuit board real estate overheads that is contrary to today's trend of device miniaturization. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a semiconductor package integrating a sensor array with a FGPA.
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